Parliament attack case: convict’s appeal dismissed

New Delhi, May 14 (IANS) The Supreme Court Wednesday dismissed a rare fourth appeal by Shaukat Hussain Guru challenging his conviction and 10-year jail term for concealing information from police about the Dec 13, 2001 terror attack on parliament. A bench of Justices P.P. Naolekar and V.S. Sripurkar dismissed the alleged Jaish-e-Mohammed militant’s appeal saying it was “devoid of merit” and “not maintainable”.

Guru, who is presently serving a 10-year term in Delhi’s Tihar Jail on the apex court’s orders, had moved the court in August last year on grounds that he had been wrongly convicted by it on a new charge of concealing information that had not come up in the trial court.

The bench had reserved its verdict on his appeal on April 22 after hearing arguments by Delhi government’s counsel and Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanian and Guru’s lawyer, former union law minister Shanti Bhushan.

Guru was originally given the death sentence by the trial court and the Delhi High Court had upheld the ruling. However, the apex court reduced his sentence to a 10-year jail term.

He was originally convicted under the now repealed Prevention of Terrorist Activities (POTA) Act and various other clauses for waging war against the state. The high court too had upheld his conviction on these charges.

But the apex court acquitted him of the charges on which he had been convicted by the trial court and instead held him guilty of concealing information about the impending terror attack on parliament from the police.

Guru has appealed before the apex court thrice - once against the death sentence and twice against his conviction on the new charge.